Rick Perry panic fires up the left

In his two weeks as a presidential candidate, Rick Perry has done something that neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney could do: wake up the left.

Perry panic has spread from the conference rooms of Washington, D.C., to the coffee shops of Brooklyn, with the realization that the conservative Texan could conceivably become the 45th president of the United States, a wave of alarm centering around Perry’s drawling, small-town affect and stands on core cultural issues such as women’s rights, gun control, the death penalty, and the separation of church and state.

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Perry on the Iowa soapbox

POLITICO 44

The epidemic of lefty angst isn’t just a matter of specific Perry policies though; it goes to the heart of the liberal worldview. His smashing debut on the presidential stage suggests that the victory of an urban liberal Democrat, Barack Obama, wasn’t a step toward a more progressive nation, but just a leftward swing of an increasingly wild pendulum, now poised to rocket to the right.

“His entry in the race is a signal and a wake-up call,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told POLITICO.

Perry, Sharpton said, “is looking to go to the O.K. Corral and start shooting. … Rather than the left get caught sleeping, we better load up, because he is bringing it.”

For Democrats, the pre-Perry GOP primary process was hardly for the faint of heart, as the other candidates have jockeyed to show who dislikes Obama the most. But even as the primary is fought on conservative turf, liberal leaders say they and their constituents see Perry as far worse than your average, hated Republican, and indeed as bad — if not worse — than his hated predecessor in Austin, George W. Bush. And progressives who might have had a hard time getting worked up about Mitt Romney find themselves struggling for superlatives with which to express their fear of a President Perry.

“His work as governor is unparalleled in its frontal assault on women,” said Siobhan Bennett, the president of the Women’s Campaign Forum, citing statistics on women living in poverty and without health care in Texas and Perry’s active opposition to abortion. “He has gone farther out on a limb legislatively in his capacity as governor and has been expressly anti-woman in the legislation he has done.”

“He is beyond what we expect from conservative Republicans on the gun issue,” said Dennis Henigan, the acting president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, who cited Perry’s support for gun rights on college campuses and said it was a sharp contrast with Romney’s “moderate” record. Perry’s rise, he said, had already become “a strong mobilizing force” for gun control activists, whose agenda has been largely ignored by the Obama administration.

“People are perceiving a very real threat that he could be the Republican nominee,” said Henigan, calling the prospect “quite frightening.”

Barry Lynn, whose Americans United for Separation of Church and State is on the front lines of keeping religion out of public life, also labeled Perry an extreme figure.

“He doesn’t just go to religious right gatherings — he creates religious right gatherings, and that’s a big difference,” he said, citing The Response, a 30,000-person event Perry led in Houston in early August.

Lynn said last week’s polls showing Perry in the lead among Republicans had startled his group’s supporters.

“Any time there’s a very viable candidate who has taken on the mantle of a crusader for Christ and ignorer of the Constitution, that makes very many people who care about the real Constitution very nervous,” he said.

You mean the leftwing media? Politico's headline article yesterday was "Is Perry Dumb". This is what the liberal media does when somneone threatens their messiah Obama.

The leftwing Journolisters are getting scared of Rick Perry and will attack him like they do with all strong conservatives, the only problem though is he will attack back. The guy is not only firing up the conservatives and TP members but will mop the floor with the inexperienced community organizer...

Slick Rick Perry the career politician. This guy will be worse than having Sarah Palin as the nominee. The Country will not elect another Governor from Texas this soon after Bush. By the time Obama and the democrats are done, Rick Perry will be George W. Perry the Tea Party Candidate. The White House has to be jumping for joy because they will run against the Tea Party and a 3rd term for George W. Bush 2.0 in Rick Perry another Governor from Texas.

This is supposed to be Mr. Conservative??

1. Mandated sixth grade girls get vaccines.

2. Started the Dream Act in Texas.

3. Said the Arizona law was too tough for Texas.

4. Against putting a fence on the border.

5. Applauded Hillary Clintons efforts on Health care.

6. Al Gores campaign manager.

NEWS FLASH:

RICK PERRY LOVES GOVERNMENT. HE'S A CAREER POLITICIAN THAT LOVES GOVERNMENT. HE'S BEEN SUBSIDIZED BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR 27 YEARS. EVERYTHING HE OWNS IS BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT. ALL THE PERKS HE RECIEVED WHILE IN OFFICE IS BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT!!

While I'm not 100% keen on Perry, I'm certainly 0% keen on Obama and the rest of the gang. This was how our current president was elected, with the media and DNC in lockstep to get everyone hating GWB so much that we'd elect anyone but a Republican. Funny how despite the media and every hack trying to support Obama, his terrible policies have pushed the public into supporting anyone but a Democrat.

With Rick Perry’s record of being a life-long Politician and the Democratic Chairman of Al Gore’s Texas Primary Campaign in 1988 - it becomes essential to question Perry’s commitment to Conservative ideals.

If Perry can convert from being a partisan secular Democrat under Gore to becoming a new-age convert to Fiscal and Social Conservatism - to embrace the polar opposite of the Progressive philosophy that “bigger Government is better” - then I must instantly express my doubts on the authenticity of Governor Perry’s candidacy.

I see a dark ambition under the smooth and polished veneer - the smile comes across as arrogant and too self-satisfied. In addition, Perry has no concept of subtlety or finesse - he embraces an overt persona that combines the rhetoric of his southern Baptist heritage with an aggressive Texas bravado that will be toxic to the Independent voter. If opportunism becomes the defining measure of a candidates’ entrance into the GOP race, then I fear Governor Perry’s declaration has the potential to represent a Conservative version of Obama’s Manchurian Presidency.

In a country that is searching for Economic salvation and the Leadership skills grounded in the understanding of what drives prosperity - I would suggest that the American electorate would gravitate much more towards a Mitt Romney candidacy.

With a resume that includes administering the financial turnaround of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games - a successful reorganization of the Staples business model and a host of accomplishments in the worlds of both Business Finance and Government - Mitt Romney has time and again demonstrated the leadership skills that have proven him to be "a good man in a storm".

Perry will play well in Texas, Louisiana and a couple South-West States - but should Rick Perry win the Republican nomination - he will lose the Bell-weather States of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and most of the Independents Voters who will be instrumental in delivering the Presidency to the GOP in 2012.

Slick Rick Perry the career politician. This guy will be worse than having Sarah Palin as the nominee. The Country will not elect another Governor from Texas this soon after Bush. By the time Obama and the democrats are done, Rick Perry will be George W. Perry the Tea Party Candidate. The White House has to be jumping for joy because they will run against the Tea Party and a 3rd term for George W. Bush 2.0 in Rick Perry another Governor from Texas.

This is supposed to be Mr. Conservative??

1. Mandated sixth grade girls get vaccines.

2. Started the Dream Act in Texas.

3. Said the Arizona law was too tough for Texas.

4. Against putting a fence on the border.

5. Applauded Hillary Clintons efforts on Health care.

6. Al Gores campaign manager.

NEWS FLASH:

RICK PERRY LOVES GOVERNMENT. HE'S A CAREER POLITICIAN THAT LOVES GOVERNMENT. HE'S BEEN SUBSIDIZED BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR 27 YEARS. EVERYTHING HE OWNS IS BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT. ALL THE PERKS HE RECIEVED WHILE IN OFFICE IS BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT!!

I’m just wondering if Mitt Romney is going to just step aside for him the way he did conservative Republican John McCain.

In any case, I’ll be very happy indeed to see the GOP go into the general election with a candidate who wants to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

I’m just wondering when he’ll start cracking jokes about the deaths of dozens of his fellow human beings, or if he truthfully believes that hurricanes and earthquakes are God’s instructions to Washington D.C. to start listening to the GOP.

I certainly don’t expect him, as a conservative Republican, to condemn, in any way, this kind of repulsive behavior.

I don't know about "the left" (the U.S. doesn't really have a left wing that the rest of the world would recognize as such ), but no Democrat I've talked to thinks that Perry is a threat outside of the South, and maybe Utah & Idaho. Either Palin or Perry would be a dream opponent for Obama, and Perry has the extra baggage of reminding people of Bush.

Ignore the insults. Turn a deaf ear to the names calling. Address the every man needs, jobs, lower taxes, government responsibility to the tax payer and talk of future generations. Talk about a strong fearless America that carries a big stick in a dangerous world. Acknowledge a faith in a higher being, and a faith in working American. Live clean and speak even clearer. Stand proud and shame the doubters and you will win. It has been done before Mr. Perry,,,,

As long as the big-money boys stay behind Romney it's still his if he doesn't completely blow it. Perry should flame out in the next few months. The GOP big-wigs will never take Ron Paul seriously, perhaps one of their only stands I agree with. Right now Obama's best hope is a serious third-party candidacy by Paul or Bachmann.

I see why the American people have an attraction towards Rick Perry. He's handsome, charming, and a full-on Texan. His stubbornness may be viewed as loyalty to his cause, but many Americans respect a man who knows what he is doing. Rick Perry reminds me a lot of Bush 2000 (surprise, surprise!). While many Democrats are afraid of this conservative cowboy, they were just as afraid of Bush 2000 who had a staunch conservative record as governor of Texas. Once a person reaches the Presidency, he takes one of two roads: the Ronald Reagan road, or the Bill Clinton road. The Ronald Reagan road is an almost complete enactment of his ideologies; the Bill Clinton road, also known as the Bush 43 or Obama road, is when the President pretty much abandons his ideologies in times of financial or political duress. I believe that Rick Perry would be in between. He would definitely stick to his ideas and beliefs, but will also make many concessions.